An aspirant mayor was shot and killed by a shooter during a rally in southern Mexico on Wednesday, bringing a violent conclusion to the campaign trail in a nation that is set to elect its first female president this coming weekend.
An official count indicates that during what has been an exceptionally violent election season in the Latin American country, over 20 candidates for local office have been killed.
Alfredo Cabrera, a mayoral candidate for an opposition coalition, was the most recent casualty. He was shot and killed in the southern state of Guerrero, which shocked and alarmed the rallygoers.
When millions of Mexicans cast ballots on Sunday, a woman seems fairly certain to win the position of president of the nation with the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, barring a huge upset.
“We’re going to make history,” ruling-party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, who is leading in polls, told a cheering crowd at her closing campaign rally in Mexico City’s main square.
“I say to the young women, to all the women of Mexico colleagues, friends, sisters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers you are not alone,” the 61-year-old said.
Sheinbaum has promised to carry out departing left-wing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s social projects and contentious “hugs not bullets” approach to addressing crime at its source.
Xochitl Galvez, 61, the opposition presidential candidate, pledged during her final rally in the northern city of Monterrey to deal more forcefully with violence caused by drug cartels.
“You will have the bravest president, a president who does confront crime,” she said.
Galvez accused Lopez Obrador of implementing “a security strategy where hugs have been for criminals and bullets for citizens.”
